I've hung my overcoat at the crossroads of media technology and social change for the last 20 years as a journalist, author, and consultant. That includes a book - CauseWired: Plugging In, Getting Involved, Changing the World (Wiley) which chronicles the rise of online social activism - and bylines at The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Huffington Post, techPresident.com, Social Edge, Industry Standard, Inside, Worth and Contribute magazines, among many other publications. I co-founded three companies, including the pioneering '90s protoblog @NY and CauseWired, my consulting firm currently advising clients on the social commons. In my spare time, I'm an adjunct instructor of social media and philanthropy at New York University.

Pinterest and the Hype Factor

Run a quick search of tech and social good blogs for Pinterest and you may burn your hands from the flames on your keyboard. There is no social media startup hotter than the new photo and “stuff” sharing platform aimed squarely at women and growing – by all accounts – faster than kudzu in Georgia. And no one seems to be running faster toward sharing visuals on this new network than nonprofits and social causes.

The allure is obvious and compelling: a large and growing crowd of users, dominated by media savvy women, that can surely help to extend a cause, build a brand, and perhaps some day, raise more money. Who wouldn’t want to spend a few hours “pinning” dozens of images to cause-themed boards and reap the benefits of the new Pinterest traffic fire hose?

Yet the incredible hype that has greeted Pinterest since its launch last year, and the massive acceleration over the past several months, is actually what gives me serious pause about the gold rush. A clever and seamless sharing mechanism that creates vast repositories of handsome visual collections powers Pinterest, to be sure. But the real fuel is human capital: the time and energy and creativity of the hordes now busily pinning on a daily basis – on an almost purely voluntary basis. Just as human capital powered Twitter as its founders tweaked the code to reflect how people were actually using the short-messaging service – and reaped a multi-billion market valuation for themselves – so too are the early Pinterest adopters frantically building economic value for Pinterest’s founders and investors.

As Alvin Toffler first reported more than 30 years ago, we’ve evolved rapidly into “prosumers” – we take on a variety of service tasks on a voluntary basis for entities owned by others, throwing our own social capital into the marketplace. In theory, there should be a strong return on our donations. By building Pinterest (and Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn) we gain the currency of a lithe and utilitarian network, maintained by technologists and their servers, but dominated by the users. In Toffler’s vision, producer and consumer merged their interests to co-produce products and reap the benefits. Yet the pull of the marketplace and the demand for a big return on venture capital usually means that those who own the stock certificates for “social” services eventually make the hard calls about the evolution of those products, and the inevitable turn towards profit.

To be sure, there are already some pretty fascinating uses of Pinterest for causes. Organizations from the Red Cross to UNICEF and many others are posting to Pinterest, gaining followers, and providing visually alluring boards to the public. The fall-out from the Susan G. Komen Foundation’s ill-advised decision to defund Planned Parenthood found an angry and effective manifestation on Pinterest, documenting the “pinklash.” And who isn’t a sucker for the Humane Society’s pinboard?

Clearly, we’re well in the “Pinterest for good” stage now – and it’s the intersection at which I’d like throw up a big stop sign.

I’m not at all convinced that Pinterest is an important platform for social ventures. It seems, rather, hell-bent on growing fast and capturing users and traffic. And those numbers are, as you have undoubtedly read, rather staggering for a coltish start-up. Here’s one that jumps out from the pack: the service attracted 11,140,641 unique visitors to the site on January 20 – an increase of 815% in daily usership in only six months. Yet aren’t we really just painting Pinterest’s fence, and adding a layer of do-gooder social causes to someone else’s business? Pinterest has no function for building membership and engagement that organizations can re-use once the pretty pictures (and occasional videos) have worn off from their initial glance. There are no list-building services, no group discussions, no cross-board communications, no code for hosting a Pinterest board on a cause’s own site. There is no fundraising mechanism.

Yet if you glance at Pinterest daily as I do, you’ll undoubtedly come across images from great causes around the world and you may well think that Pinterest carries the mantle of a potential social change network. Well, I’m not buying it , at least not yet – and I think the social sector should pause before donating its images and brands to this (admittedly handsome and fascinating) private enterprise. And this doesn’t even address the burgeoning copyright issues that Pinterest clearly faces, its use of Facebook sign-in to essentially spam all your friends, or its practice of swapping out Amazon links to create a revenue stream on referral fees.

I’m not the only one hitting the pause button. After a couple of tweets this week calling out Pinterest hype among nonprofits, social media consultant and author Geoff Livingston expanded on his thinking in an email exchange:

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Thanks for this post Tom, I respect you and Geoff very much and think it’s incredibly important to question where resources go! If you’re curious as to why we’re using Pinterest I’d love to talk to you about it!

I think Pinterest is a great way for the right brands to market themselves. People are actively pinning on their own interests and given a pin’s ability to link back to the Pinner’s website or page, it’s a smart way for businesses to drive online sales. Discussions on forums, lists, etc. aren’t needed or necessary on a tool like this. Think of marketing on social gaming sites- it’s exploding with brands and gamers are responding to the ads.

Interesting post. It’s always wise for nonprofits to proceed with caution with new social networks, in large part because resources are scarce. It’s difficult for most organizations to justify spending a lot of time in a network like Pinterest if it’s unclear whether the network has staying power.

In this case, though, it’s becoming increasingly clear that Pinterest isn’t something that should be ignored — and not because it will necessarily become a huge source of traffic or donations for nonprofits. It’s because Pinterest offers an interesting study in how people are now sharing and communicating online. If you manage a web site (and you’d be hard pressed to find a nonprofit without a web presence), then you should be paying attention to how people are consuming and sharing information to help guide your strategy.

If you’re watching what’s happening on Pinterest and participating in it, you’ll have some great insight into what appeals to your supporters online. And you can make decisions based on those insights.

Participation is not always about clicks and dollars. Sometimes, it’s about gaining knowledge.

Thanks for the article! Social media can be a vital tool for the success of nonprofit organizations operating on a limited budget. Pinterest is definitely one area where nonprofits can advocate their cause, but they must be sure to utilize various social media platforms to reach a broader audience. A friend’s blog discusses 22 methods for nonprofits to leverage social media. Some tips, aside from Pinterest, are to utilize LinkedIn, tell stories from experience, and focus on email. He claims that whatever social media a nonprofits decides to use, it must align with its goals. Here is a link to the rest of his tips: http://www.bradaronson.com/22-high-impact-low-cost-social-media-opportunities-for-nonprofits/